


Someday, Somehow

by clawstoagunfight (orphan_account)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Future Fic, Holidays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-31
Updated: 2014-05-31
Packaged: 2018-01-27 16:25:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1717073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/clawstoagunfight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It shouldn’t surprise her as much as it does, that both of them have changed. She supposes it’s always different to know something in theory than to see it played out in front of her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Someday, Somehow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pr1nc3ssp34ch (dallisons)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dallisons/gifts).



> A long time ago, I did a fic giveaway on my [tumblr](http://clawstoagunfight.tumblr.com/), and this is the first of three fics I promised to people. 
> 
> [dallisons](http://dallisons.tumblr.com/) won my grand prize, so this one is for her! Hope you like it!
> 
> \---
> 
> Beta'd by [thewolfthatwrites](http://thewolfthatwrites.tumblr.com/)!

It wasn’t a decision Lydia made lightly—to go to The University of California, San Diego, and be so far away from all of her friends. It was nine hours and thirteen minutes by car, between her dorm and Beacon Hills. She only knows because she had been obsessively looking at the clock on her long, lonely drive down, her car stacked to the brim with suitcases and boxes filled with everything she owned of importance. She’d been counting the minutes, feeling a little lighter with each change of a number, feeling like maybe, for the first time, she was in control of her own life.

Everyone else stayed local, either for a job or a stint at the local community college—Scott, Stiles, Kira, Danny, and Malia. There might’ve been a time, in her first couple weeks at the university, where she felt bad for leaving them, for not being there for all of them. She had caved and skyped Scott—Scott, who became the kind of best friend she thought she’d never have again after Allison. Scott had talked to her for over three hours, telling her that it was okay to want to get away, especially for her, especially after everything that happened. That was the first night in a long time that Lydia felt like it was truly okay to want to live her own life and follow her own dreams.

~

College life is a difficult transition for her. She doesn’t know if it’s because she was used to spending so much time alone in a house that was too big and too empty—and suddenly being stuck in a room smaller than her previous bedroom makes her feel a little claustrophobic. But then again, it could be the company.

Her roommate, Kathleen, is—in Lydia’s opinion—a raging bitch. She complains about everything, all the time. She spends most of her time inviting her friends—or, Lydia thinks, the people she is desperately trying to impress—back to their dorm so they can all party. At all hours of the night. While she is trying to study for her 20 credits in applied mathematics. She is the most difficult person Lydia has ever attempted to get along with, and she stopped trying after the second day when she’d walked in on Kathleen throwing out all of Lydia’s food from the mini-fridge and replacing it with her own.

At least Lydia manages to make friends with the girl who sits next to her in trig. Her name is Natalie and she’s a sophomore. She lives in the dormitory across campus, so Lydia finds herself spending more and more time in Natalie’s company. They go out for coffee, eat lunch together a couple times a week, and Lydia tutors her in math. It’s easy between them. They aren’t best friends—probably never will be—but she helps make Lydia feel less lonely on nights when she doesn’t want to talk about werewolves or nightmares.

She tells Lydia all about how she recently switched her major from history to anthropology, because the hot TA for her _Intro to Culture_ class last semester inspired her to want to learn more. She doesn’t ask Lydia about her past more than just the usual twenty questions, and Lydia is grateful.

The best thing about Natalie is that she’s _normal_. She’s completely average in every way, and it’s _nice._

She’s not the smartest person, not the prettiest girl in the room, but she makes up for it all with her dry sense of humor and her kindness. The most extraordinary things about her is that she’s from Utah and she occasionally smokes weed.

Lydia wishes that she could’ve been roomed with Natalie instead of Kathleen, but she thinks that maybe that’s part of the going away to college experience.

~

It’s early October when she calls Scott on Skype. His face covers her screen when he accepts the call and she can’t help but smile.

“Lydia!” Scott exclaims. “Hey, how are you? How’s San Diego?”

His earnestness is endearing and she shakes her head a little at him. “Hey, Scott. It’s warm, as usual.” She bites her lip for a moment. “Hey, so how is everything?”

Scott’s smiles softens a little and she knows that he knows what she’s really asking. Just because Lydia left Beacon Hills and all of the things there, doesn’t mean that she doesn’t care about it. She thinks that place will always have a piece of her, for better or worse. She still feels the connection, sometimes still gets twinges like she can hear what’s happening, even hundreds of miles away. “It’s good. We’re all good here. It’s all quiet on the supernatural front.”

Lydia relaxes at that; the tension that’s been slowly building in her for the last couple weeks without communication with him and the rest of the pack fizzles out. It’s easy after that, to let Scott fill her in on everyone else. It’s easy to listen to him talk about himself and his mom and their friends and the life she left behind when she decided to move away. It’s easy for Lydia to rant to him about her roommate, to talk about her classes and how one of her professors said she might be able to graduate a year early with the course load she’s on track to take. She tells Scott about Natalie, and how Scott would probably like her and Stiles would probably want to be best friends with her.

They talk for another hour before Lydia starts to zone out, thinking about all of the homework she could be getting ahead in. She almost misses it when Scott says something and just catches the last couple words.

“…a call from Derek, which was cool.”

Lydia frowns. “Wait, what was that?”

Scott frown a little at her. “Were you even listening to me?”

Lydia shrugs. “Mostly.”

Scott shakes his head at her, but he’s grinning a little. “You’re worse than Stiles, sometimes, I swear. I said, the other day I got a call from Derek. It was pretty cool. I haven’t heard from him since graduation.”

Lydia frowns. She’d almost managed to forget all about Derek—about all the Hales, really. She didn’t like to think about Derek or Cora, not after everything that happened with Peter. Thinking of the other Hales always brought back bad memories.

It’s not like she was ever friends with either of them. Cora was only around for a couple months during the stint with the alpha pack and Ms. Blake, before she left to go back to South America. Derek…well, things with Derek always were a little more complicated. They were never friends—they never spent any time alone together. Their contact with each other was strictly limited to pack meetings or life and death situations. She wasn’t like Scott, or even Kira, who tended to spend more time with Derek because he was teaching them things. Derek was kind of a loner anyway. He never really fit in with their group, with the pack they made themselves into.

And then, one day, he was gone. Lydia didn’t even know he had left until she couldn’t remember seeing him for a couple months. She had brought it up with Scott and Stiles and they’d given her a look like she was crazy, before Scott said, “I thought you knew? He left a couple months ago to go back to school somewhere.” That had been the end of it, the last she’d heard anything about Derek Hale, until this moment.

“He called you at graduation?” Lydia asked, feeling a little put out that she didn’t know that Scott and Derek still kept in contact.

Scott reaches a hand up to scratch at the back of his neck, his lips twisting. The video feed freezes on that face for a moment, even as his voice comes through the speakers. “Yeah, I mean, he’s called me every couple months since he left? I just thought, you know, that—” the stream unfreezes and Lydia’s faced with his wide, puppy eyes, “you wouldn’t want to hear about him—because of…” He waves his hand.

Lydia feels her frown drop away, “Scott…” She doesn’t know what she was going to say, doesn’t even think there are words enough to tell him how much it means to her, that even now, even hundreds of miles away, Scott is still trying to protect her. “Thanks.”

Scott smiles at her. It’s another hour before they end the call.

~

It’s midterms when it happens. Lydia’s exhausted from Kathleen keeping her up most of the night. It’s not Lydia’s fault that her roommate waited until the night before midterms to study for all of the exams she’s no doubt going to fail. Lydia doesn’t know why she’s the one who has to suffer because of another person’s misfortune. She cannot afford bags under her eyes.

She’s just stepping out from her last midterm of the day when she gets a text from Natalie letting Lydia know that her Anthro class had a paper due for the midterm, so she decided to go talk to her advisor—the hot TA from last semester. Natalie tells her she’ll be done in fifteen minutes. She asks if Lydia wants to meet her at his office so they can go somewhere and Lydia can quiz her on trig before their exam the next day.

Lydia sends a quick reply asking for the building and room number so she can meet Natalie there and gets another response with the information. It’s a couple buildings away, so Lydia heads over, hoping she can kill enough time to get there and only have to wait for Natalie for a few minutes.

The office is on the second floor and Lydia finds it without difficulty. The door is closed and it sounds like the appointment is still wrapping up, so she just sits on one of the benches in the department to wait. She hears the murmur of voices from inside, hears a man laugh. She smiles, thinks how nice it is that Natalie is friends with the hot TA that she never seems to shut up about.

According to Natalie, not only is he one of the smartest Ph.D candidates for the linguistic anthropology program, but he is also funny, kind, and always willing to do everything he can to help the students out if they need it. Plus, Natalie swears he’s the hottest person she’s ever laid eyes on—and she’s a lesbian, so that’s saying something.

Lydia’s still smiling when she hears Natalie’s voice, closer to the door than it was before, like they are walking over to it together. She stands up as the door starts to swing open and Lydia sees Natalie’s tell-tale brown hair. “I guess I’m just really excited about my nomadic cultures class next semester, because you make it sound so interesting. Did you _really_ spend three months living off the land?” Natalie’s all the way out the door, but she stops to hold it open for the man behind her.

She hears his laugh before she sees him—a light, rich sound that’s almost infectious. It has Lydia’s lips twitching up at the corners. But then she freezes, the smile on her face dropping as fast as her stomach does.

Walking out through the office door is none other than Derek Hale. Lydia knows—she would recognize him anywhere, even if it has been almost a year and a half since she saw him. He looks different—his hair is a little longer, he’s wearing glasses and a shirt and tie. He looks taller, somehow, like maybe he’s thinned out just a little.

He stops walking as soon as he sees her and it’s like a punch to her gut. His eyes widen a little, the smile dropping from his face. His eyebrows draw together and his mouth opens, like maybe he wants to say her name, or ask her what she’s doing here. Lydia wants to know the same, but fears the answer. Instead, they just look at each other, neither of them moving, Lydia barely breathing.

Natalie looks between them for a long moment, confusion written on her face before it clears. “So, Mr. Hale, this is my friend Lydia Martin.”

Derek blinks slowly at her before he extends his hand out for Lydia to shake. She doesn’t want to make a scene or somehow make Natalie feel bad, because she obviously planned to introduce them, so she grasps his hand. The handshake is short, but Derek’s palm is soft as he keeps cradling her hand. Lydia can’t bring herself to pull away, still feeling a little shocked at the fact that Derek Hale is standing in front of her.

 “Well,” Natalie says, clapping her hands together to break the tension between Lydia and Derek. “We should be going. I’ve got a trig exam tomorrow that I desperately need help studying for. I’ll see you in a couple weeks, Mr. Hale!” Derek drops Lydia’s hand and Natalie takes that moment to loop her arm through Lydia’s before she starts to gently pull her along.

Derek clears his throat and finally looks away from Lydia. “Right. Good luck on all of your exams, Miss Livingston.” He looks back to Lydia for a moment and nods, “Miss Martin,” before he walks back into his office and closes the door.

Lydia spends the rest of the day dodging Natalie’s looks and questions about what all that was about, until Lydia finally breaks and tells her that she and Derek used to know each other a long time ago, that they grew up in the same town. Natalie gets way too excited at that piece of information and starts asking her a bunch of questions about what Derek was like when he was younger. Lydia just shakes her head at Natalie until the other girl gives up and they move on to studying trig.

~

Lydia feels strange after the run-in with Derek, like she’s off-kilter for the first time since she’s been in San Diego, and she doesn’t like it. She doesn’t like it at all.

She looks him up—of course she does. He’s in his second year of his Ph.D program here and he TAs for two classes. It’s the following Monday and she doesn’t even think about it before she goes to where his office is, knowing that it’s currently his office hours. She doesn’t allow herself to feel nervous, the indignation and anger is enough to fuel her fire as she knocks—loudly—on his office door.

She hears the shuffling of papers before Derek says to come in. Derek looks up immediately and Lydia closes the door behind her. His office is clean, neat, with just a stack of papers on his desk that he’s obviously been reading through. There’s not a lot of room, so she walks around to sit in the chair opposite his desk.

Derek clears his throat. “Lydia. To what do I owe the pleasure?” His words are quiet, steady—so different from the Derek she knew who used to yell to be heard.

She stares at him, unblinking. “Did Scott put you up to this?”

His lips turn down into a frown. “Did Scott put me up to what?”

“This,” she gestures to the room, “Being here. Was this Scott’s idea?—some sort of misguided way for him to still keep an eye on me?”

Derek blinks at her and sighs, sitting back in his chair and setting his pen down. “Look, Lydia. I have no idea what you’re talking about. Scott—he doesn’t even know where I am.”

Lydia narrows her eyes at him and crosses her arms. “Really? Because Scott told me a couple weeks ago that you called him to let him know how you’re doing.”

Derek’s mouth twists. “I did, but…I never told him _where_ I was. I thought—I thought it would be best if he—if all of you—didn’t know. You being here is as much of a surprise to me as it is to you.”

Lydia hums and thinks over his answer for a long moment. “Well, either you tell Scott, or I’ll have to. I can’t keep secrets from him.” She stands up and makes her way over to the door, feeling slightly better about everything now that she knows her fears were unfounded. She’s got her hand on the doorknob when he speaks again.

“Lydia?” She looks over her shoulder at him. He’s standing on the other side of his desk. “I’ll tell Scott, okay?” She nods and thinks that’s that, but he continues. “It’s—ah, really good to see you.”

She thinks about what it must’ve been like, to be alone for so long, separated from his pack, from the only kind of family he has left. But here he is, doing something, making something of his life. He seems happy. Lydia smiles. “It’s good to see you, too, Derek. Maybe we can meet up for coffee sometime? Catch up a little. For old times’ sake.”

Derek nods. “You know where to find me.”

~

They meet up for coffee at a local café two weeks later. Lydia’s just come from a class and Derek has an hour before his next one starts.

It’s easier than she thought it would be, to sit and talk with him. She learns that Derek’s actually pretty funny—not sarcastic like Stiles is, but he’s got a dry sense of humor that reminds her of Natalie. No wonder the other girl kept talking Derek up to her—she was obviously trying to set them up. Derek’s also pretty serious about his studies, which Lydia appreciates.

They talk for forty minutes about life at the university, San Diego, classes, and Natalie. Derek tells her about how the convenience/bookstore on the far side of campus has the best pizza and they complain about how the library has shitty cell reception.

Beacon Hills doesn’t come up once.

~

They start meeting up more often after that. Sometimes they get coffee, or food; sometimes Natalie joins them and convinces them to go bowling, or to the beach. Or even on one memorable occasion, they all went to the movies together and talked so much that they were asked to leave. More often than not, though, Derek and Lydia just hang around campus, in the library or walking between buildings together.

It’s about a month later that Lydia calls him up at eleven o’clock on a Friday night, asking if he wants to meet up with her at the 24-hour diner near campus. He agrees and she heads over. She would’ve called Natalie, but she went home to Utah for the weekend for her sister’s birthday. Lydia didn’t really know who else to call, and she just needed to get out of her dorm. Kathleen had some of her friends over and they were driving Lydia crazy.

Derek’s already at the diner when Lydia gets there, sitting in a booth in the corner of the mostly empty restaurant. A waitress comes over and they order—Derek a burger and fries and Lydia a strawberry malt.

“So, what’s up?”

She just groans and rests her head on her arms where they are crossed on the table. “Ugh. My roommate. All I wanted to do was study, but _no_. She’s got to have her wanna-be sorority sister friends over at our dorm. I mean, I know it’s a Friday night, but some people like to study.”

She lifts her head, and the waitress comes back with Lydia’s drink and Derek food. He looks over the table at her and smiles wryly. “I think you’re the _only_ person who actually wants to study on a Friday night.”

Lydia sips at her malt and frowns at him. “Well, what were you doing?”

Derek’s burger is raised halfway to his mouth, but he stops, ears reddening a little. “I was, um, working on my dissertation.”

“Ha!” Lydia says, smiling victoriously.

“Yeah, yeah.”

They sit in relative silence for a little while, watching as the Friday night drunks starts stumbling their way into the diner to eat food they’ll probably just end up puking up. The waitress brings the bill and Derek pays for it before Lydia can do anything. It’s not until they’re walking out to head their own separate ways that Derek stops her with a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, Lydia, I know how important your education is to you, so, if there’s ever a night like this, where you need a quiet place to study, I don’t live too far from campus. My apartments a little small, but there’s a spare room and a study. You’re welcome to it if you ever want.”

Lydia looks up at him, pleasantly surprised by the offer. She smiles at him, reaching up to pat the hand that’s still on her shoulder. “That’s—that’s actually really nice. Thank you, Derek.”

He grins. “I promise, it’s not even missing any walls.”

She laughs loudly at that, waving a goodnight to him. She’s in such a good mood that not even Kathleen’s drunken yelling is enough to ruin it.

~

It isn’t long before Lydia’s calling Derek to take him up on his offer. She’s got a huge group project due in one of her classes in two days, and she’s doing the bulk of the work—because Lydia Martin will _not_ get a failing grade just because someone else slacks off.

She finds his apartment no problem. It’s nice, a smallish complex away from the hustle and bustle of the university, but close enough that it’s convenient. She knocks on the door and hears a call from inside a moment before Derek’s swinging the door open. He lives on the second floor, but the stairs are inside of his door. She takes her shoes off before she follows him up.

It’s a nice apartment. Nicer than anything Derek ever had in Beacon Hills, if a little on the small side. It’s quaint and homey. Derek’s standing by the couch, text books and papers and his laptop skewed about over the wooden coffee table.

He moves to pick up his stuff but Lydia just laughs at him. “No, don’t worry about it. Clutter, I can handle. It’s the noise that I can’t stand.”

Derek huffs out a small laugh. “Well, I just figured I’d work out here if you want to use my office. It’s just down the hall.”

Lydia smiles at him before passing the small kitchen and heading down the hallway. Three of the four doors are open—the bathroom, a room with just a daybed in it, and the office. There’s a large desk with minimal nick-knacks on it against the wall, a floor lamp in the corner, and an oversized desk chair. Lydia sits down and gets to work.

She doesn’t even notice how much time has passed, too consumed in finally being able to get in the groove of working, that when Derek offers to make dinner for them both, it’s only then she realizes she’s starving.

It turns out, Derek is a great cook.

~

She goes to his place more and more. Sometimes, instead of going out to dinner, Lydia will just pick up take-out on her way. If they need coffee, Derek will brew a pot.

Lydia doesn’t always stay in the study. Sometimes she sits on the living room floor in her yoga pants with her books spread out around her. Sometimes she curls up on his couch and reads journals on mathematical theorems while Derek grades papers or works on his dissertation.

Sometimes, they just sit together and watch TV, or a movie. Sometimes, Natalie joins them when she’s free. Other times they just Skype with Scott and Kira, or they talk— _really_ talk. But always, there are moments, in the middle of whatever it is they are doing, where Lydia will look at Derek—at him smiling, at the relaxed look he gets, or the way he chews on the cap of his red pen, or the way his brow creases in concentration when he’s slaving away on his computer—that she realizes just how different Derek is now.

She guesses it shouldn’t surprise her as much as it does. She knows that she’s changed a lot, too. Derek has said as much on a few occasions. She supposes it’s always different to know something in theory then to see it played out in front of her. Like now, with Derek laughing along to SNL reruns, eating fistfuls of popcorn from the bowl on the couch in between them. The corners of his eyes crinkle and she suddenly sees how much older he looks from when she first met him.

She must’ve been looking at him for too long, because his eyes leave the TV screen and find hers. The smile drops a little from his face and he rests his head against the back of the couch. “What?”

Lydia tilts her head a little. “Are you happy?”

The corner of Derek’s mouth quirks up a little. “Yeah. Yeah, I am. I mean, this isn’t the _best_ skit, but Andy Samberg is pretty funny.”

Lydia rolls her eyes and grabs some popcorn, throwing it at him without heat. “Dork.”

Derek laughs a little and just brushes the popcorn onto the floor. She knows he’ll have to clean it all up tomorrow, since Sundays are his cleaning day, but it doesn’t stop her from throwing more popcorn.

He makes a sound of protest before he’s grabbing some popcorn of his own to throw back at her.

Yeah, Derek’s definitely changed.

~

Lydia decides not to go back to Beacon Hills for Thanksgiving. Her mom gets upset with her for a day before she gets over it and Scott and the rest of her friends back home are understanding. Kathleen is gone for the weekend, but staying in the mostly empty dorms makes Lydia feel lonely.

She doesn’t have to worry about being alone for the holiday, though, because Derek invites her over for Thanksgiving dinner and tells her she can have the guest bed if she wants. She agrees since she won’t have to get up early to go shopping with Natalie, because she’s spending the long weekend in Utah.

It’s a nice time. Lydia makes fun of him for making too much food—she’s still mostly human, there is no way in hell she can eat half that turkey—and Derek threatens to not let her have any of the good red wine he bought. She doesn’t say anything corny, like how she’s thankful she got to get away from Beacon Hills and the nightmares there. She doesn’t tell Derek that she’s thankful to have him in her life, and how she feels like he’s a piece that’s somehow been missing before. She does tell him that she’s thankful he’s such a good cook, because the thought of cafeteria food for Thanksgiving dinner is not an appetizing one.

They eat until their stomachs hurt—Derek eating much, much more than her, but Lydia fighting him over the last slice of pecan pie. They drink through two bottles of wine and by the end of the night, Lydia is buzzed and happy.

They sit down on Derek’s couch and put on Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Twenty minutes into the movie, Derek gets Lydia a blanket, because she’s shivering a little. She thanks him with a wide smile before she moves over to his side of the couch and puts her head on his shoulder, pulling the soft fabric of the blanket up over them both. Eventually—after Lydia’s dropped off to sleep for the third time, only to jerk back awake, Derek moves them so that his arm is around her shoulders and she’s resting her head on his chest. He tucks the blanket more securely around her.

She’s more comfortable like this, feels warm and secure. Sleep crests on her like a wave, gently pulling her under. She hears Derek murmur, “Go to sleep,” and swears she feels his lips press to the top of her head, but her mind is sluggish and she lets the sound of John Candy and Steve Martin lull her to sleep.

~

It’s the week before finals and Lydia is staying the night at Derek’s place again. She’s been doing it a lot lately since Kathleen has been stressing her out more and more. Lydia cannot afford to be stressed out by her, not right now, not with trying to study for exams and worrying about where she’s going to live next year.

She’s in the middle of ranting at Derek over pizza, when he cuts in. “So, I take it you haven’t heard anything back about a roommate reassignment?”

Lydia takes another bite of her pizza and glares at him. “No. Apparently, they don’t do reassignments until after the holidays. Which means that I have to move all of my things out of the dorm, back home, and then back down here again.” She puts her slice down and sighs sadly. “Oh, well. Maybe I’ll luck out and get a single room this time.”

Derek hums, “Tell me again why you can’t room with Natalie?”

Lydia rolls her eyes, “Because Natalie lives in a dorm apartment and is locked in for the whole school year. She actually _likes_ the people she’s living with.”

They eat in relative silence for a little while before Derek clears his throat. “You know, Lydia. I do have a spare room.”

He says it nonchalantly, like he’s telling her the weather. She frowns. “Yes, Derek. I’m aware of that, thank you.”

He lets out something that sounds like a scoff. “I just meant…it’s empty, and you need a place to stay.”

She looks over at him consideringly. “No, I need a place for my stuff to stay.”

Derek looks away from her, down to his plate with his mostly eaten slice. “Okay. Well, the offer still stands. Whether for you, or your things. Mi casa es tu casa and all that.”

Lydia starts a little bit. “Wait, are you serious?”

Derek shakes his head a little and goes back to eating. “Would I offer if I wasn’t serious?”

Lydia bites her lip and thinks about it, really considers what he’s saying. She knows him well enough now to know that he wouldn’t just let anyone stay with him, and the thought that he’s offering, just for her, makes something warm settle in her stomach. She grins widely before she gets out of her seat and moves forward to wrap her arms around him.

“Derek, you are the actual best!” She presses a kiss to his cheek and tries to ignore the way the tips of his ears go red.

“Whatever. Hand me another slice, will you.”

She figures it’s the least she can do.

~

Lydia wants to go home for Christmas. She misses Scott and Kira and Malia and Stiles and her mom and Scott’s mom and Stiles’ father. She misses hanging out with all of them and is sick of just seeing their faces though a cell phone or computer screen.

It’s the day before she’s scheduled to leave. Her bags are already packed and she just got off the phone with Natalie, who just got back to Utah for the next couple weeks. Classes ended a week ago and—surprising no one—Lydia passed all of her classes with flying colors. Also surprising no one, so did Derek. His advisor told him he has one of the strongest dissertation topics he’s seen on a decade, something Derek’s been subtly bragging about to anyone who will listen

Derek’s in the kitchen, making dinner for them both, so Lydia heads over to him.

Things had been different since she moved in with him. While she’s thankful not to be living with Kathleen anymore, living with Derek presents a whole slew of problems that she never thought she would be experiencing. Like knowing how Derek looks when he’s covered in flour, or the awkwardness of sharing a bathroom with him, or the way he always knocks softly on her door and tells her goodnight on his way to bed. Living with him makes her realize things about herself that she wasn’t quite ready to come to terms with.

Things like the fact that she’s a little in love with Derek. Things like she can’t imagine not spending Christmas with him by her side.

“Derek,” she says, stopping next to him and leaning back against the counter to look up at him, “you should come back to Beacon Hills with me.”

Derek, who had been cutting up veggies for the stir-fry, freezes. He sets the knife down and turns to look down at her, cocking his hip against the counter. “I don’t—Lydia, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Well, why not?”

Derek sighs and shakes his head a little bit. “I don’t know. I left because it seemed like…no one wanted me there.”

Her heart hurts a little at the look on his face. She takes a step toward him and raises her hand to cup his cheek. “Derek. Sweetie, that’s not true at all. We all want you there. Scott wants you there. I—” she bites her lip, smoothing her thumb over the curve of his cheek, “I want you there. I want you there with me.”

She can feel her heart pounding away in her chest. It’s loud to her own ears, so she can only imagine what it sounds like to him. She leans forward slowly, keeping her eyes on his. She sees the moment realization crosses his face, the way his lips turn up at the corners and his eyes crinkle, and then he’s bending down to close the distance between them.

The kiss is soft and sweet, just a press of lips, before Lydia moves her hand up to run her fingers through his hair, pulling him just a little closer and deepening the kiss. Derek pulls away after a while, goes back in to press one last kiss against her lips. He presses their foreheads together and runs his hand up and down her back.

“I guess this means I should start packing.”

Lydia smiles and kisses him again.

~

Derek and Lydia throw a New Year’s party at their apartment. Scott and the pack come down from Beacon Hills for it, wanting to spend some more time with the new couple, and Natalie flies back from Utah early just to make an appearance.

It surprises no one that Natalie fits in well with the group of them. Stiles takes to her almost immediately and compliments her on her ability to put up with both Derek and Lydia, especially at the same time. Danny tells her they should go to a gay club in the area together before he leaves. Natalie and Malia make fast friends and end up on the couch near midnight, surprising everyone by bonding over their love of all things Gossip Girl.

Derek pours all of them a small plastic glass of champagne, handing them out as they all crowd around the TV, counting down with the millions of other people on their side of the country.

The excitement is almost tangible, each new number making the group louder and louder, until finally, they are counting down from ten.

Derek’s got his arm wrapped around Lydia’s shoulders and she looks over at him. He’s relaxed, lips stretched into a smile as he looks at the other people in the room, at his pack, his friends, his family.

She only manages to wait until they’ve all yelled ‘two’ before she pulls him in for a kiss, fitting their lips together in a way that she doesn’t think will ever stop feeling right.

They hear the cheer of midnight, the plastic clink of classes as the others toast, but it’s a couple more seconds before they pull away from each other. Scott is laughing, holding Kira close and peppering her face with small kisses. Stiles is refilling his and Danny’s glasses with champagne. Malia gets up from the couch to go get some snacks, and Lydia’s eye catches Natalie’s, who is only a few feet away.

She stands up and smirks at them, looking between Lydia and Derek with an expression not unlike that of a proud parent. She takes a step closer to them and pulls them both into a hug, sighing happily. “I can’t wait to be the maid of honor at your wedding.”

“Shut up, Natalie.” Derek says, pushing Natalie away a little as Lydia rolls her eyes at their friend’s antics. Natalie just laughs before she pats them both on the back and goes over to talk more with Malia in the kitchen.

Lydia is still laughing a little when Derek pulls her in for one more kiss.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Kudos and comments are appreciated!


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